Mass managerial cleansing

Experts speak of a new managerial cleansing comparable in the scale with the years of 1995-1996 and 1999-2001, Zautra Tvajoj Krainy reports.

Judging by the number of high-ranked prisoners, this opinion finds support. Although, unlike the mass cleansings of the previous periods, the majority cases of 2013 have an obvious anti-corruption basis.

On the eve

The most prominent cases in the industrial branch in 2012 were the arrests of the heads of Mozyrsol and Mahiloudreu. The head of Mozyrsol Mikhail Licvin was detained, according to law enforcers, while he was taking a bribe of $8.1 thousand. Charges were brought against Mahiloudreu’s former director general Andrej Vusau for power abuse that led to multimillion damage to the enterprise.

At the end of December 2012 a citizen of Russia, the director of a sanatorium Belarus in Sochi Georgiy Sarakasish was detained and put in KGB jail. The director, who held a contract with the Presidential Administration and came for a planning meeting to Minsk together with his subordinates, was charged with serious fraud. Thus, the Russian embassy to Belarus had to support its citizen, who ended up in a Belarusian prison, for the first time in 2013.

From the spring of this year there was not a single month without a detention or criminal charges against at least one top-manager.

April

In April the director of a private transport company Avtotranskargo was detained for solicitation to bribing officials of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The amount of 550 euro was the subject of the case.

This case was overshadowed by the detentions of two heads of major state enterprises. Also for a bribe, but this time in the amount of 400 thousand Russian roubles, the director general of Mahilouvodbud Jauhien Ziuzin was detained in April 2013. He was supposed to receive such an amount of money from the representatives of a Russian company for solving the issue of concluding agreements for transport services and land recultivation in the Republic of Komi.

Even larger public resonance was caused by the information on the detention of the director general of Minsk meat processing and packing factory Uladzimir Lazouski. He is also suspected of receiving a bribe in the amount of $4 thousand from the head of a private construction company. We would note that Uladzimir Lazouski worked as Lukashenka’s deputy executive officer in 1994-2000 with most of this time spent under the leadership of the well-known Ivan Ciciankou.

May

In this month the arrest of the director of Mahilou’s Kazheunik public corporation was announced. The former manager was accused of theft by the means of power abuse. The preliminarily stated amount of the caused damage amounted to 60 million roubles, according to law enforcers’ estimations.

June

Information leaked into media about the criminal charges against the former director and art director of the Belarusian State Circus Tacciana Bandarchuk. According to the official statement by the Investigatory Committee, she is suspected of power abuse.

Belarus Prosecutor General’s office received the information from Italy, that Interpol officers detained and put into custody the former director general of the Pinskdreu Holding Company Laran Arynich, wanted since 2011.

July

The detention of the chairman of Belkoopsojuz Siarhej Sidzko together with several subordinates became the most high-profile case of 2013 for month. The heads of Belkoopsojuz were accused of extorting bribes in the amount of over $500 thousand.

August

At the end of August the Belkoopsojuz case was overshadowed by the detention of Uralkali’s director general Vladislav Baumgertner, who came to Minsk for a meeting with Mikhail Miasnikovich. Lukashenka did not rule out that the Russian top-manager might be extradited to Russia as he spoke at the meeting on economic and foreign policy issues on 19 September.

September

In this month the heads of two major state enterprises got the attention of law enforcers.

At the start of the current week the director general of one out of the country’s three cement mills Krichevcementnoshifer Leanid Skotski. He is accused of misappropriation of 60 million roubles, intended as a bonus for workers.

Literally yesterday, on 19 September, the detention of another high-ranked state manager became known – the director general of the state organization Housing and Communal Services of Minsk Region. He is accused of stealing budget assets and other crimes.